Modeling and robust trajectory tracking control for a novel six-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle (Q474480)

Summary: Modeling and trajectory tracking control of a novel six-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is concerned to solve problems such as smaller payload capacity and lack of both hardware redundancy and anticrosswind capability for quad-rotor. The mathematical modeling for the six-rotor UAV is developed on the basis of the Newton-Euler formalism, and a second-order sliding-mode disturbance observer (SOSMDO) is proposed to reconstruct the disturbances of the rotational dynamics. In consideration of the under-actuated and strong coupling properties of the six-rotor UAV, a nested double loops trajectory tracking control strategy is adopted. In the outer loop, a position error PID controller is designed, of which the task is to compare the desired trajectory with real position of the six-rotor UAV and export the desired attitude angles to the inner loop. In the inner loop, a rapid-convergent nonlinear differentiator (RCND) is proposed to calculate the derivatives of the virtual control signal, instead of using the analytical differentiation, to avoid ``differential expansion'' in the procedure of the attitude controller design. Finally, the validity and effectiveness of the proposed technique are demonstrated by the simulation results.